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Henry Loomis (April 19, 1919 – November 2, 2008) was an American physicist and broadcasting executive. He was director of
Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
from 1958 to 1965, and president of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...
from 1972 to 1978.


Early years

Loomis was born on April 19, 1919, in
Tuxedo Park, New York Tuxedo Park is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. Its population was 623 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown metropolitan area as well as the larger New York metropolitan area. Its name ...
. His father,
Alfred Lee Loomis Alfred Lee Loomis (November 4, 1887 – August 11, 1975) was an American attorney, investment banker, philanthropist, scientist, physicist, inventor of the LORAN Long Range Navigation System and a lifelong patron of scientific research. He estab ...
built a fortune financing public utilities and sold out just before the
Wall Street crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...
. Alfred Loomis set up a physics laboratory in an old mansion where Henry worked with his father as a teenager on brain-wave research, including participating as a volunteer in his father's experiments. The two later took part in pioneering research on radar. Loomis attended Harvard University and left in 1940 during his senior year to enlist in the United States Navy. Harvard granted him an undergraduate degree in 1946 based on his radar instruction while in the navy.Holley, Joe
"Henry Loomis, 89; Physicist Led VOA and Public Broadcasting"
'' The Washington Post'', November 8, 2008. Accessed November 15, 2008.
In the navy, he was on the staff of the Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet Headquarters in Pearl Harbor. Loomis was responsible for the creation of training materials for radar, and worked with pilots and officers on ships to help overcome their wariness of the technology and develop their skills in its use. Loomis was awarded the
Bronze Star Medal The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...
and left the navy with the rank of
lieutenant commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank ...
. Late in the war, Loomis had a chance meeting with
United States Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
Henry L. Stimson Henry Lewis Stimson (September 21, 1867 – October 20, 1950) was an American statesman, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. Over his long career, he emerged as a leading figure in U.S. foreign policy by serving in both Republican and ...
, a cousin of Loomis', and Lt. Gen.
Leslie Groves Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves Jr. (17 August 1896 – 13 July 1970) was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project, a top secret research project ...
, head of the Manhattan Project. In a discussion about potential target cities in Japan for the atomic bomb being developed, Loomis dissuaded them from targeting Kyoto, citing the city's art treasures he had learned about while studying Japanese history at Harvard. He attended the University of California, Berkeley after the war, where he took graduate courses in physics, including work as an assistant with Ernest Lawrence at the school's radiation laboratory. He spent four years as assistant to
James Rhyne Killian James Rhyne Killian Jr. (July 24, 1904 – January 29, 1988) was the 10th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from 1948 until 1959. Early life Killian was born on July 24, 1904, in Blacksburg, South Carolina. His father ...
, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and led the research and intelligence functions at the
United States Information Agency The United States Information Agency (USIA), which operated from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, prior to the reorganization of intelligence agencies by President George W. Bush, President Bill ...
. Loomis later directed the staff of Killian, who had been appointed as the President's science advisor. He served for 13 years on the board of the not-for-profit Mitre Corporation, which was affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked with the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
and United States Department of Defense after graduating from Berkeley.


Voice of America

Loomis was appointed by President Eisenhower in May 1958 to head the Voice of America, succeeding Robert E. Button. As Director, Loomis had transmitters erected in Liberia and the Philippines, and in four other countries that had not been previously reached by their signals. These new broadcasting stations were announced in 1959 as additions to the eight stations that existed at the time, as part of a 5-year, $40 million expansion of services. The broadcasting power of the Voice of America was also increased. Under Loomis' guidance, the first Charter of the Voice of America was established, as part of an effort to ensure that the Voice of America would win the attention and respect of listeners. The initial version of the Charter was approved by President Eisenhower shortly before he left office. The current version of the Charter, signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford, protects the independence and integrity of Voice of America programming, specifying that it will be "a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news", that it will represent the entire United States and will "present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions" and that it "will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies." Loomis expressed his belief that the Charter was "so fundamental and so represents the realities of the world and the moral principles that undergird this nation, that the Charter will endure for the life of the Voice."VOA's Mission in the 1960s and 1970s
Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
. Accessed November 15, 2008.
President
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
in a 1962 visit to the headquarters of the Voice of America, emphasized the importance of journalistic integrity, stating that "You are obliged to tell our story in a truthful way, to tell it, as Oliver Cromwell said about his portrait, to paint us 'with all our blemishes and warts,' all those things about us that may not be immediately attractive." As part of an effort to help make English a
World language In sociolinguistics, a world language (sometimes global language, rarely international language) is a language that is geographically widespread and makes it possible for members of different language communities to communicate. The term may also b ...
, Loomis oversaw the introduction on October 19, 1959, of the use of
Special English Learning English (previously known as Special English) is a controlled version of the English language first used on 19 October 1959, and still presented daily by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America (VOA). World news and oth ...
, in which news is read slowly using a limited vocabulary of about 1,500 words with a simplified grammar and short pauses between adjacent words to make word boundaries more easily discernible. The target audience for Special English is people who have learned English in school, but are less than fluent and do not speak it in daily usage. In February 1962, Loomis announced the addition of three new short-wave radio transmitters that would allow it to better compete with
Radio Moscow Radio Moscow ( rus, Pадио Москва, r=Radio Moskva), also known as Radio Moscow World Service, was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics until 1993. It was reorganized with a new name ...
and Peiping Radio, and to help reach through the jamming of its signal. Under Loomis, the Voice of America reported on the pressing stories of the day, including round-the-clock coverage in Spanish and expanded English language reporting during the
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United ...
in 1962. The VOA broadcast Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
's ''
I Have a Dream "I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called ...
'' speech live around the world in August 1963 during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Loomis resigned from his post in 1965, citing increasing pressure from the Johnson Administration to refrain from reporting news that would reflect negatively on the White House, particularly on the nation's increasing military involvement in Southeast Asia. The Johnson White House wanted the Voice of America to refrain from reporting on United States Air Force missions over Laos. Loomis noted in his farewell speech that "The Voice of America is not the voice of the administration."


Corporation for Public Broadcasting

President Richard M. Nixon appointed Loomis in September 1972 as president of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...
, overseeing money to be allocated to public television stations, in an appointment that '' Time'' magazine described as evidence that "the localists appear to have won the battle". Loomis, then deputy director of the
United States Information Agency The United States Information Agency (USIA), which operated from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, prior to the reorganization of intelligence agencies by President George W. Bush, President Bill ...
, was named to replace John W. Macy. Jr., who had been the first head of the Corporation when it was established in 1969, and had been a longtime advocate of centralization of public broadcasting. Loomis removed control over programming from the Public Broadcasting Service, decentralizing control and redistributing the funds to local stations. In December 1977, Loomis announced that he would step down as president when his term ended in September 1978, or would leave earlier if a successor was selected. Loomis resigned in 1978 in a wave of centralization back to PBS under the
Carter Administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A  Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican Presiden ...
.


Personal

His brother, Alfred Loomis was a sailor who competed at the
1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ...
in London, where he won a gold medal in the
6 Metre The International Six Metre class is a class of classic racing yachts. Sixes are a '' construction class'', meaning that the boats are not identical but are all designed to meet specific measurement formula, in this case International rule. At ...
class with the boat ''Uanoria''.Staff
"Alfred Loomis Jr., Olympic Sailor, 81"
'' The New York Times'', September 13, 1994. Accessed November 14, 2008.
Loomis died at age 89 on November 2, 2008 in Jacksonville, Florida, due to complications of
Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...
, Parkinson's disease and
Pick's disease Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), or frontotemporal degeneration disease, or frontotemporal neurocognitive disorder, encompasses several types of dementia involving the progressive degeneration of frontal and temporal lobes. FTDs broadly present a ...
.Grimes, William
"Henry Loomis, Who Led Voice of America, Is Dead at 89"
'' The New York Times'', November 13, 2008.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loomis, Henry 1919 births 2008 deaths Corporation for Public Broadcasting Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Deaths from Parkinson's disease United States Navy officers Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Deaths from Pick's disease Deaths from dementia in Florida Mitre Corporation people Voice of America people United States Navy personnel of World War II American media executives Loomis family